There are a number of things (changes) I have noticed now that I've spent all these hours fine tooth-combing everything basically vs what OneUI 6.0 has on the S23 Ultra. Some of these things will no doubt be dictated by Google as a move going forwards for their unified look and feel for the Google/AI experience from here on.
1: By default many apps (Facebook for example) won't let you change notification tones for individual categories like chats, comment replies etc. This is because under notification settings in OUI6.1 there is a new setting to enable or disable forced notification categories control instead of letting the app control it internally. This is off by default, toggling it back on re-enables this function. For me this is important as i I HATE most app's built in notification sounds, Facebook and FB Messenger are two such apps. Obnoxiously loud and lengthy tones whereas I like quick and discreet yet perfectly discernable to me as to what app made that pitched tone or noise etc.
2: The navigation bar has been changed. You no longer can enable the 3 segmented navbar gestures and hide the gesture markers. The 3 gesture areas are replaced by a forced Google central bar that cannot be auto hidden. The only other option is to use old style navbar buttons. I know it's only a few pixels high but I'd like the ability to hide the forced navbar area, since I use One Handed Operations+, I can remap a gesture for Circle To Find to an action that way. I suspect that this is enforced by Google as mentioned, and that Samsung Goog Lock will add a module to mitigate this restriction and give users the options to tweak it to preference. Good Lock devs seem to listen to user requests so give it a month or so for people to submit their reports.
As a result, the actual usable screen restaurateur is reduced vs the S23 Ultra, and the 23 Ultra actually ends up having a better usable screen edge to bezel ratio lol:
Now there is a workaround of sorts, it doesn't fix it completely, but you can get the chinned off area back at the bottom and reduce the width of the central bar by using Navstar in Good Lock, once set, the navbar now simply floats over any active window
You can also make is slightly darker too by changing the colour not to black, but just a dark grey shade a few shades before pure black, this darkens it further.
3: The S Pen grip is less grippy than the one on the S23 Ultra, means you have to pinch it with more pressure now else it can slide up your fingers as you draw/write.. Also the S Pen still isn't flush fit with the bottom of the body when inserted, so the phone won't stand up on its own unless you eject the pen first. Slightly annoying given that the end of the S Pen is flat whereas the S23's one is curved:
4: I think the cameras on the back look really cool, but having had the Redmagic 9 Pro (Also SD 8 gen 3) for a bit, I actually really appreciate a completely flush back. Given that both phones are near identical in thickness with the RM9Pro only being a couple of mm taller/narrower,
whilst at the same time having a 6000mAh battery,
1500mAh more than the S24 Ultra, I think maybe the sticky-outy camera rings were more of a design decision from Samsung than anything else, they even have bulky camera surrounds on the mdrange A/J series Galaxies so I think it might be a style thing, "camera sticks out thus must be mega":
5: AOD, I have a routine set up so that when it's charging the AOD is displayed, this worked well on the 23 Ultra as I had the AOD set to a higher brightness which was easily visible when the phone was laying on the wireless pad at he desk or in the car. The ability to change the brightness by double tapping the AOD clock no longer exists and I find the AOD a bit dark to see clearly under the monitor on the desk when the lights are off and only the monitor is the main source of light in the room. AOD ramps up instantly when the room lights are increased though. So just a slight niggle that hopefully an update sorts.
Aside from that, the phone feels really good to hold, the Titanium warms to temp really quickly just like my old Titanium watch used to, and as a result it transfers heat more obviously than the S23 does. I'm feeling the heat more in my palm than I ever did with the S23. This is a good thing I guess as you want transferring away from the internals, not staying locked in or focused in one particular area.
The corners digging into the palm is one negative I saw mentioned in multiple youtube reviews but I don't see this as a problem one single bit, no matter how I hold it with comfort, there is no digging into my palm. It's actually more comfortable in the palm than the S23 Ultra is for long periods of time.
Camera, unlike previous Galaxies where if you selected the higher MP modes you would end up with higher levels of noise/less dynamic range when in the normal photo mode (not Pro or Expert RAW). On the 23 Ultra this has changed and you actually get very good low light noise and dynamic range. I guess I can partially retract a previous statement about sticking to 12MP, 50MP is perfectly usable for high quality sharp results where you do want to get as much detail as possible and then ideal to downscale for display/sharing. It's not practical though as both 50MP and 200MP images take a some time to process in the background and you also lose some features like the 50MP mode only gives you the 1x and 5x lenses (with digital zoom in between), 200MP only gives you access to the 1x lens. Further testing needs doing though, I'm travelling this weekend so will give it a good go.
Be sure to install Camera Assistant and tweak some settings for the best quality for both photo and video.
Speaking of video, 4k60fps with the settings set to focus on quality is really excellent. Finally smooth 60fps at 4k with great image quality.. Just make sure that Video Stabilisation is turned off in the camera settings as you will get panning judder if it's left on by default. There's revised OIS on the 24 Ultra and it's always active, there's no need to enable EIS as well as that just crops in the video FOV as well.
Video is better on the s24 ultra and the hold to slow down is brilliant, for anyone with kids the single take feature is brilliant .
Yup make sure that you are always recording at 60fps though for this to work effectively, you don't want to slowmo 30fps footage!
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